Angel With A Crossbow
by GirlInterruptedCorrupted
Summary: { Book 2 in my AU series } Sophia Peletier finds her way back to the group with a mother and daughter duo in tow. The mother, Carlie Devaine, has been injured badly and things look grim at first.. But as she recovers and begins to form a tie to the group -mostly to Carol and her daughter Sophia - she also begins to form a connection with a certain surly and cranky redneck..
1. Chapter 1

**BEFORE I BEGIN : This is a total AU, just like my other Walking Dead story. Sophia is alive here, and she makes her way back to the group in an interesting way. Pairing will be Daryl x OC with a Carol x OC friendship / family ship.. This came to me while writing another chapter for my Shane story, so I wrote it all down and thought I'd share. At this point, one chapter is all I have written and it takes place after Shane and Jenny have left the farm but before the farmhouse is attacked and burned down..**

 **sorry ahead of time for any ooc ness that may occur, I'm really trying, I swear to god. If you want more, you know what to do...**

* * *

ONE

She'd honestly lost track of time as she made her way through the woods, sun beating down on her, the words the older man had said sticking in her mind like a red alert. If she kept going, Sophia reasoned, if she kept the sun at her back, she'd be safe.

And the little girl was scared and alone and very afraid until she heard the screams. She knew one was a woman, maybe a teenage girl, she wasn't sure yet, but the other was a little child just like her.. And then something her momma said came to the front of her mind.

She stood in the clearing just listening for a few minutes and then she saw the little shack nearby, she shielded her eyes from the sun and saw the window, quietly ducking, making her way over to the shack. Crouched out of sight, the men laughing and high fiving as they said some very vulgar things didn't even see the little 9 year old girl.

But the little girl in the window did.

The window was open a crack and Sophia hissed frantically, "Can you get out?"

The little girl nodded and worked the window open wider as she said quietly, "My momma's hurt real bad. I can't get her out by myself."

"We gotta hurry." Sophia told the other little girl, adding quickly, "My name is Sophia Peletier."

"Mine's Candie Burke." the little brunette told her, asking, "Where's your momma and daddy?"

"I got lost." Sophia admitted as Candie told her, "The men.. they come and killed my daddy and my uncle. Tried to kill me and momma too but we fought 'em off and they took us prisoner. I'm scared."

"We'll figure this out." Sophia stood there, fingers winding in dirt matted blonde hair as she tried to think of a way to get the two out of the shack. Her eyes darted around the perimeter and settled on the back door of the shack. She told the girl what she was doing and quickly, she ran around, trying the handle. She felt a huge wave of relief wash over her when she found out the door was unlocked and she was inside within seconds.. But then the teenage boy stepped out.

"And just what the hell are you doin?"

Sophia gulped and the teenage boy studied her a moment. He could let her and the other two his father bought back go now, or he could be like his father and tie her up, toss her in the little room at the end of the hall too..

The teenage boy sighed and grabbed the keys from the table. He'd lie, he'd tell his daddy that the woman got loose again and knocked him over the head. Whatever happened, happened. What his daddy and his uncle were doing was wrong and sick.

"You saw 'em."

Sophia nodded and the boy said quietly, "I'm gonna have my fuckin ass kicked for this, or beat real bad, but… I'm gonna let 'em go, take the three of ya to a farmhouse up the way and drop ya off. The Greene family is good people.. Better than my dad."

Sophia wanted to hug the boy, but instead, she searched his eyes for hints that he might be lying to get rid of her. When he took her to the room, cut the bonds off the woman and scooped her up into his arms, she hugged him quietly. "You're doing the right thing."

"I know, kid.. Just hope I can remember that later when my pa is beatin the hell out of me." the teenage boy said as he cut the little girl's leg ties free and then quickly grabbed truck keys. He got the three of them into the truck and got the truck on the road, spinning out wildly, and within minutes, the trio was sitting on the porch of the Greene farmhouse, Sophia and the other little girl talking quietly about what they'd do if these people turned them away or they'd been bit.

"If there's nobody livin left, we can get food, stay a little and let Momma heal.. She'll take real good care of ya too." Candie told the blonde sitting to her left as she bit the inside of her cheeks and prepared to knock.

Before she could even knock, someone was yelling, running towards them.

Carol almost wouldn't have believed what she'd seen if Andrea hadn't seen it herself and started screaming for her.

She saw Sophia standing on the porch of the farmhouse, dirty and sweaty and scared but very much alive.. And with an older woman who was laying in the swing as if she needed serious medical attention and another little girl, a brunette who shrank away at the sudden appearance of other adults, especially male ones.

"Sophia, baby, mommy was scared to death." Carol's tears rolled down her cheeks, falling like rain as she kissed her daughter and squeezed her so tightly that she thought she'd squeeze the breath right out of her daughter's little body.

"Momma, we gotta get Candie's momma some help. These men had her and they beat her real bad." Sophia nodded to the leggy brunette lying on the porch swing, ripped clothing, bruised and beaten.

Carol fixed her eyes on the other little girl and asked, "Were either of you bit?"

The little girl shook her head quietly and then under Sophia's promise that everything was okay, nobody here would hurt her, the little girl began to quietly tell Carol everything that happened, from the night the men broke into their deer camp and killed her father and uncle, to just now, when the teenage boy freed them and at the end she nodded to Sophia and said quietly, "She saved our lives."

Carol hugged her daughter, patting the girls head as she muttered quietly, "Good girl.. Mommy raised you right. Such a good girl. I'm so glad you're alive and here again."

"Momma, we need to get them inside.."

The men were returning from the supply run by now and Carol gave a shrill whistle to the man with the bow and arrow just as Carlie began to waken from the grogginess of the pain of her injuries. The second light brown eyes set on his green ones, she muttered quietly, "Tommy? But they killed you..." and fainted again as Candie stared up at the man wide eyed.

Daryl caught the woman just as she went to fall back against the porch swing again, scooping her off, ignoring the comment and the strange way she behaved long enough to get her into the house and into the guest bedroom.

Once Hershel was in the room with the woman, the little girl made her way over to Daryl and said quietly and in a confused voice, "You're not my daddy.. He got shot in front a me."

Daryl exhaled a plume of smoke into the air, fixing green eyes on the dirty faced 8 year old and said "Obviously not, kid."

"But ya look exactly like 'im." the little girl dug around in a faded and dirty pink backpack to pull out a photo and held it out. Daryl took it, and he coughed in discomfort and shock. But there it was, in a photo in a frame.. The man standing in the picture could have been his mirror image, maybe a lot taller, a lot more muscular, but still almost uncomfortably like looking into a mirror for the irritable redneck.

Suddenly, the mom's outburst at seeing him made sense.

He stubbed out the cigarette and then held the photo back out to the kid, eager to get it out of his sight.

It was weird, seeing a version of yourself but happy, without all the messed up shit that went on in your own mind half the time. And one hell of a lot more uncomfortable than he'd ever imagined it would be.

"Might wanna go put that up, kid."

The little girl gave a nod and quickly walked away, shoving the photo back down into her bag. She went outside after, playing with Carl and Sophia under the big tree in the yard.. And for whatever reason, Daryl slid the pocket doors to the guest room the woman was laid up in open and made his way in quietly, sitting down.

The woman tossed and turned, putting her hands up defensively as if she were fending off an attack and from behind him, Hershel spoke up and said quietly, "She'll be fine once she's up and healed. The most recent blow to the head she took gave her a bad concussion and it's lucky she didn't just slip into a coma from all the blood she lost. She fought hard though, most likely for that little girl of hers."

"She wasn't bit.. Right?"

"Nope. Not a bite mark on her, Dixon."

"Good."

"Heard what the little girl told you out there earlier.. Any relation to you?"

Daryl shrugged, after their momma died, their daddy had gotten around a lot, but he somehow doubted it. "Dunno, old man. I doubt it though. Guy looked like he was my age."

Hershel gave a nod and left the room, leaving Daryl to sit there, watching the woman lying in the bed. "You gotta fight harder, woman. You got a kid out there." he stated simply before getting up, leaving the room, doors shutting softly behind him.

And in the bed, Carlie Devain lie there, trying to wake herself up, to keep herself from slipping out while she slumbered...


	2. Chapter 2

**BEFORE I BEGIN : This is a total AU, just like my other Walking Dead story. Sophia is alive here, and she makes her way back to the group in an interesting way. Pairing will be Daryl x OC with a Carol x OC friendship / family ship.. This came to me while writing another chapter for my Shane story, so I wrote it all down and thought I'd share. At this point, one chapter is all I have written and it takes place after Shane and Jenny have left the farm but before the farmhouse is attacked and burned down..**

 **sorry ahead of time for any ooc ness that may occur, I'm really trying, I swear to god. If you want more, you know what to do...**

* * *

TWO

She'd been out for almost 2 and a half days when her eyes began to flutter open and she felt the pain all over, kind of like she'd been hit by a train. She winced when she went to roll over and she couldn't without it sending a searing pain through her whole entire body. She realized she wasn't alone in the room when a male voice with a thick Georgian accent spoke up and said quietly, "Bout time you woke up."

She fixed her eyes on him and for a few seconds, she felt confusion and fear, sliding up onto the bed as far as she could out of the man's reach. "Y-you're dead, I saw it.. You died, Tommy." was all she could say when the words finally came. Daryl shook his head and explained quietly, "I ain't him. Just happens we look similar, woman."

"You might as well be his twin." Carlie admitted quietly, her heart climbing down from her throat momentarily, before going right back up again as she realized that Candi wasn't in her sights. "Where's my daughter? What the fuck have you done with her? What happened?"

Daryl put down the wood he'd been whittling, turned to look at the beaten and bruised woman laying in the bed as he said quietly, "One of ours found ya both, bought ya back here. Yer safe now. Candi is outside playin with two other kids, got Maggie n Carol watchin after 'em. She's fine.. Yer both safe. As far as what we done, we done nothin. Was the men who took the both of ya hostage after he kilt yer man who did all those things to ya."

"But he didn't.. Candi's fine, right?"

"She's fine.. Worried as hell about you, but she's healthy, not been bit or nothin. Same for you." Daryl answered quietly, fixing steady green eyes on her light brown ones, telling her quietly, "Hershel fixed you up. Said it was a miracle you were even alive all the blood you lost."

Memories flooded Carlie and she winced and shook her head; disgusted. If she'd been able to fight harder.. They never would've even been in the situation in the first place. She honestly hated herself right then, she'd failed her little girl. Sighing, she asked finally, "Can I see her?"

She started to leave the bed but Daryl's hand on her arm stopped her and he said firmly, "You sit tight. I'm goin to get 'er."

"I can walk. We need to go now anyway. I won't have us being a burden on your people."

"It ain't safe, woman. You're here, now, and you're gon stay here. Rick already said." Daryl muttered the words calmly, his hand lingering at her arm, a stubborn fire in his green eyes to match her own as he stared her down. "No sense in arguin about it."

"But with two more mouths to feed, mister, there is no way in hell this group can last. Hell, there was only four of us and we were barely livin." Carlie answered, her own stubborn eyed gaze matching his, finally, she sighed. "We'll stay on until I heal. And then I'll revisit this and make a decision. I can't keep my kid safe injured, you're right on that. Hell, I couldn't keep us from getting taken hostage in good health."

"Accordin to what yer girl told all of us, lady, you were probably in some kinda shock. You watched your man die. Anybody with a heart's gon be affected by seein somethin like that." Daryl wasn't sure why he was trying to explain away the actions of a woman he barely knew, or why he'd sat beside her for the better part of a day and a half since her arrival, but.. He had and he was, apparently.

"Yes, but I am also a mother. And I failed my child when I allowed the things that happened to happen to us. If they'd have killed her.." A shiver passed through Carlie's body as she barely attempted to entertain the possibility that those men could have very well killed Candi.. She wasn't worried about herself. Just her daughter being safe, that was all that mattered to her currently.

But was staying here, with this group, the best option she and her daughter had presently? She wasn't sure, but.. She knew she could not keep them both safe and alive if she ventured off alone with her current injuries.

"They didn't.. And it's probably because you fought 'em like hell, lady. That's what Candi told me anyway, said you hid her and took all the abuse on yourself." Daryl grimaced, the situation sat entirely too close to home with him, his own momma, she'd hid him in a closet when his daddy came home liquored up and meaner than hell.. She'd taken quite a few of the beatings he probably would've gotten before she finally got killed in a fire.

Just thinking about it made Daryl feel bitterness all over again. The fact that there were people in the world who'd do things like this made him sick to his stomach, made him want to go and find these men and kill them. Mentally, his inner thoughts reminded him, "Accordin to the kid, one of 'em got taken care of by Shane, the crazy sumbitch.. Randal was a part o' that group, he wound up here, he got kilt by Shane." and he kept quiet on the matter. Candi had seen Randal hidden in the barn that first night they showed up and she'd been real quick to tell him that the kid was one of the three men who'd done what they had to her momma.

Personally, that made Daryl want to walk out to the barn right then and gut the guy, but.. He was trying to do what Rick thought was best, the guy had enough on his plate a few days back with Shane running around like a loose canon, almost getting them all killed with the downright crazy choices he made almost regularly.

But, Daryl reminded himself, If Randal were one of those men, he got what was coming to him when Shane killed him.

"I did I just.. I should've been able to get us both out of there."

"From what I hear about them men, they do this to a lot of women folk they happen upon who are alone.. Done it to another one of ours, she left the group and struck out on her own with a guy named Shane." Daryl admitted, his eyes meeting hers for a few seconds, lingering.. Underneath all the bruises, he couldn't help but be unsettled by how pretty she had to be without all of them marring her face.

He shoved the thought out of his head really quick. Because this new world they were living in was not ideal for anyone to get close to anyone or entertain any kinds of thoughts about it.

Because the second you did that, that's when you put yourself in a definite position to be totally fucked over in the future, either by loss of person or by betrayal of person.

Neither was a thing Daryl Dixon anticipated having happen to him, so he was going to do his damndest to avoid that.

Before another word could be said, Daryl stood, set out to find Candi playing in the yard. Anything to get out of that room and away from the strange protective urges he felt and had been feeling since the duo arrived at the farmhouse.


	3. Chapter 3

**BEFORE I BEGIN : This is a total AU, just like my other Walking Dead story. Sophia is alive here, and she makes her way back to the group in an interesting way. Pairing will be Daryl x OC with a Carol x OC friendship / family ship.. This came to me while writing another chapter for my Shane story, so I wrote it all down and thought I'd share. At this point, one chapter is all I have written and it takes place after Shane and Jenny have left the farm but before the farmhouse is attacked and burned down..**

 **sorry ahead of time for any ooc ness that may occur, I'm really trying, I swear to god. If you want more, you know what to do...**

* * *

THREE

"Stop telling me what the hell to do, Dixon." Carlie stared him down, a challenging and calm gaze in her eyes as her hand rested on her hip. Daryl withdrew an irritated breath, smoke billowing up and into the air as Carlie fanned the air and glared. "I'm tellin ya, woman.. Get yer ass back in the farmhouse. Ain't safe, you going on a supply run."

"Well Andrea damn sure isn't in the shape to and neither is Carol.. Lori would be about as useful as a wet noodle. Maggie's going."

"Maggie ain't got no little one either, does she?" Daryl asked.

"Yeah, well, my little one needs certain medicine. Forgive me for not trusting strangers to bring it back. I am, after all, her mother… As in the person who probably knows what medicine will work and what won't." Carlie retorted. Carol's throat cleared from behind as she asked calmly, "Are you two fighting again?"

"He's being a damn stubborn …" Carlie started, Daryl cutting her off to put in his two cents by saying, "And she's not bein any less stubborn. I'm tryin to tell 'er that goin with us ain't a good idea. That one of us will bring back the kid's medicine. She's still got a bum knee and ankle." Daryl nodded to Carlie's injuries and then added, "And she ain't gonna do nothin but slow us all down, get herself killed."

Glenn cut into it all to say quietly, "Write down the medicine, Carlie and Maggie and I will get it.. We'll bring it back with us."

"It's inhalers.. Emergency ones.. For asthma.. And an ephineprin pen for allergies.. And bigger emergencies.. She has mild asthma, it usually doesn't manifest itself often, but with this heat being what it is and spring coming.." Carlie gave the man a wary look as she wrote down the needed medical supplies and then said "On second thought.. I got one of them in my pack. I'll go get it."

Daryl held out the inhaler and then said with a non amused and very smug look, "Ya mean this 'ne, woman?"

"How the hell?" Carlie started as Daryl shrugged and then said "Remembered seein 'er havin to take a pull or two off it about two days ago. Checked it when the two of ya were out here and it was almost gone. I went in, added it to the list."

Carol smiled to herself and just sort of laughed a little, telling Carlie, "We're not like those men who kept you both hostage. You're both safe here and it's a better idea if you stop trying to leave and just stay." as Carlie mulled it over. She was getting better every day… and she was starting to get used to being around the group.

And whether she liked admitting it or not, she was getting a little attached to the surly redneck wielding a crossbow and she secretly enjoyed their arguments… But she'd die before admitting it. Instead, she gave him a glare and then told Carol quietly, "If it's not an inconvenience then we'll stay… for now. But if it starts to become a burden, we're going on our own again." as Carol nodded and then said "Either way.. You need to get off that ankle. Hershel told you already, if you keep trying to walk on it before it's healed, you're only going to make a bigger injury of it, you might even break it."

With one lingering look at Daryl's retreating leatherclad back - and ass, she turned and walked into the RV where Carol was, books out, attempting to hold a makeshift classes for the kids and for the two teenagers in the group now, Beth Greene and her husband Jimmy.

"She gets under your skin way too easily." Glenn mused as Daryl grumbled and rolled his eyes as he said with a shrug, "Only cause she won't stop tryin to damn go off, get herself kilt. That kid needs 'er momma alive." as Glenn snickered and Maggie spoke up, a teasing gleam in her eyes as she pointed out, "And you're not watching her like a damn hawk every time she's looking away? You've got it bad."

"I don't got nothin, girl. Shut yer face." Daryl grumbled, getting onto his brother's motorcycle, heading out ahead of them. He thought about the whole stupid and pointless argument they'd had just then, and for whatever reason, he couldn't really do anything but laugh about it. He parked the motorcycle and caught up to the group as they headed into the pharmacy, taking the paper from Glenn as he went. "I got it."

"You sure?"

"I can read a lil bit. I know what asthma medicine looks like, damn." Daryl grumbled, starting towards the back of the store, figuring that seeing as how it was basically compressed air in a squirt thing, they'd have to keep it cool.. And sure enough, he found them…

But there were so many different labels. Looking around, ashing his cigarette on the linoleum, he doubled back, grabbing an insulated lunch box.. And then he went back, looking around again. After he'd swept them all into the lunch box and zipped it, he swore when the thing wouldn't zip properly. From behind him, Glenn chuckled a little and finally, Daryl got the pack zipped.

"Damn thangs take up some room."

"Tell me again how you don't kind of maybe have it bad?"

"I don't." Daryl stubbornly insisted, adding quickly, "Just makin sure that kid's got 'er medicine. Got nothin to do with that damn argumentative woman." as he walked past Glenn, grabbing himself a case of beer that sat on the top of a display for the beer.

"Liar, liar, pants on fire." Glenn muttered to himself as he shook his head and found Maggie, telling her what he'd seen just then. "Oh.. He has it bad.. And sooner or later, it's gonna spew right out of him." Maggie mused, grabbing the canned food they could use and putting it into her own pack.

Back at the farmhouse, the sun was going down and Carlie was standing on the porch, watching the dirt road that lead to the farm. Her hand wound through her hair as she bit her lower lip and grumbled to herself about how she should've went, how they needed more than just four or five people to go.. The sounds of a motorcycle approaching had her heart rate speeding a little, and when he got off, stubbing out a cigarette, he made his way over, putting an overstuffed insulated lunch bag into her hands. "Got every one of 'em I saw. Because too much or not enough is better 'n none at all."

With the words spoken, Daryl Dixon slunk into the farmhouse, screen doors shutting hard behind him. Carlie looked in the bag and she smiled to herself a little… "Maybe we can trust these people." she muttered to herself mostly as she started into the farmhouse herself after calling her daughter Candi and Carol's daughter Sophia and the little boy Carl into the house to wash up and eat.

For now, the two would stay… It made sense, it was better than risking it on their own. These people hadn't been anything but good to her and to her daughter and the little girl pretty much saved her life the day she found them in the woods and they made their way back here…


End file.
